GlobalWafers Co., Ltd. () is a Taiwanese
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...
company. As of 2022, they are the world's third largest
silicon wafer
In electronics, a wafer (also called a slice or substrate) is a thin slice of semiconductor, such as a crystalline silicon (c-Si, silicium), used for the fabrication of integrated circuits and, in photovoltaics, to manufacture solar cells.
The ...
supplier.
History
GlobalWafers was spun off from Sino-American Silicon Products in 2011.
In December 2016, GlobalWafers completed its acquisition of
SunEdison Semiconductor, which was later renamed to MEMC and remains a wholly-owned subsidiary.
In 2018, Nikkei Asia reported on extensive talent poaching issues from China being faced by GlobalWafers.
In 2020, GlobalWafers announced their attempted acquisition of German silicon wafer supplier
Siltronic
Siltronic AG is a German manufacturer of wafers made of hyperpure silicon headquartered in Munich.
History
In 1953, it all began in Burghausen Germany as Wacker Chemie was already researching and developing hyperpure silicon, which lead to the ...
. The deal fell apart 2022 when the German government failed to clear the deal by the required deadline. GlobalWafers later announced that they would be putting the more than US$3 billion earmarked for the acquisition towards capacity expansion.
Operations
South Korea
GlobalWafers operates in South Korea under subsidiary MEMC Korea Co. A second fab opened in 2019.
United States
GlobalWafers opened a fab in
Sherman, Texas
Sherman is a city in and the county seat of Grayson County, Texas, United States. The city's population in 2020 was 43,645. It is one of the two principal cities in the Sherman–Denison metropolitan area, Sherman–Denison metropolitan statist ...
in May 2025, billing it as the "new epicenter of semiconductor manufacturing in North America." It is the first of three planned fabs in Sherman.
In 2021, GlobalWafers also announced fabs to be built in
Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
as part of a partnership with
GlobalFoundries
GlobalFoundries Inc. is a multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company located in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Malta, New York. Created by the divestiture of the manufacturing arm of AMD in March 2009, the ...
.
References
External links
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Silicon wafer producers
Manufacturing companies based in Hsinchu
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